SEO for Property Managers: Organic Keywords vs Paid Search

Do you know the difference between CPC and PPC? How about SEM and SEO? 

All of these terms get confusing fast when you’re trying to boost the results of your property on search engines like Google or Bing. 

This guide will help you know the differences between these terms and cover the basics of organic keywords and paid search for your property management company. 

Organic Keywords

What are organic keywords? An organic keyword is a keyword that is related to the topic of your article that is used to attract traffic through a search engine for free. This process is known as search engine optimization or SEO. 

Search engines like Google and Bing crawl websites looking for keywords matching or related to the user’s search to display content the user is looking for. You can capture some of the traffic from these search engines and bring them to your site by using keywords. 

There are many, many factors that search engines use when weighing the decision of what content to show the user, but keywords are an important factor. If your article doesn’t have the keywords that people are using the search then it probably will not show high up in the rankings. 

Optimize your website for SEO by including keywords in your copy. But which keywords should you use and are all keywords created equal? Keep reading to find out. 

Organic Keyword Research

Doing some research to find the best organic keywords that people use to search for content will go a long way. Use an organic keywords tool to help you see how many people look up your keywords and how difficult it may be to rank using them.

You can also check out what keywords your competitors are using by entering their URL into the tool. When you enter their URL, it will show you the keywords that they are using. Pay attention to the keywords that have a high search volume but wouldn’t be difficult to rank for. 

Consider creating articles or content with the keywords your competition is using if you are trying to target the same audience.  

After you’ve found your primary keyword, find some related keywords. Choose some great supporting keywords that go with the topic of your article. Depending on how long your article is you should be able to use many secondary keywords. 

But do not overstuff your articles with organic keywords. Google favors content that keeps the user experience in mind. If your article is stuffed with tons of keywords and does not provide value, chances are it’s not going to rank high. 

Organic Search Strategy

It’s important to have an organic search strategy when you are creating content for your website. Here are a few tips you can use in your strategy. 

• Content is king. Google and other search engines place a high value on fresh, up-to-date content. Just like social media, the key here is to create content that people love, want to read, and share with their friends. 
• Opt for longer content. Studies have shown that longer content usually does better in search engine rankings. Do not artificially inflate your word count but do try to have articles that are at least 2,000 words long. 
• Use images to break up the page. No one wants to read a long page without any pictures. Use images like pictures or infographics to help break up your content and make it look better. 
• Fix your meta descriptions. Meta descriptions are the first thing people will see when they are thinking about clicking on your page in the search engine results. Always be sure to use a good descriptive description of your page to entice them to click. 

Paid Search

Paid search will work hand in hand with your organic keywords. When people talk about paid search they are mostly talking about PPC or pay-per-click. 

Have you ever seen those ads to the top and bottom of a Google search? That is a PPC ad. When people enter a search into Google Google gives them results based on the organic keywords and paid search words you are using. 

This can be a very successful strategy for property managers because your PPC ad can appear at the top of the search rankings just by having an ad running. You also know that the user who is searching for your words is highly motivated towards becoming a resident. 

Organic vs. paid search is something you will need to play around with to get the best results for your company. A professional SEO company can help you come up with a paid search plan that will achieve the results you are looking for. 

Organic SEO and Paid Search Vocabulary

There are a lot of different terms thrown around when talking about keywords and PPC. Here are just a few of them. 

• CPC – CPC stands for cost per click. This metric measures the actual cost per click that you will pay to have people visit your website from your paid search ad. 
• CPM – CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions. Unlike the CPC an impression is the number of people who were shown your ad. This doesn’t mean that they necessarily clicked on it to go to your website. CPM is a good measure of brand awareness. 
• SEM – SEM stands for search engine marketing. It can be a pretty vague term so be sure to ask your SEO company what exactly they mean by SEM. 
• Long-tail keywords – Long tails keywords are very specific phrases people use to search for your website. People who use long-tail keywords are usually closer to purchasing than people who use shorter keywords. 

SEO Can Get You Results

This article covered the basics of SEO keywords vs. paid search. We hope we have cleared up some of the verbiages related to organic keywords that can be a bit confusing. 

If you are still a bit confused We are here to help. Contact Surf Results Marketing to get a FREE analysis of your website’s rankings today and learn where you rank on Google.